Coronavirus LIVE Updates: French PM Castex Tests Positive for Covid-19 After Returning from Belgium

Ladakh has recorded 16 fresh COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 21,327 while the active cases in the union territory has come down to 230, officials said on Monday. Ladakh has registered 212 Covid-related deaths — 154 in Leh and 58 in Kargil — since the outbreak of the pandemic last year. Ten patients were recovered and discharged from a hospital from Leh. The total number of those recovered is 20,885, they said. All the 16 fresh cases were reported in Leh, the officials said. A total of 492 sample reports in Ladakh were found negative, they said. There was no death reported due to Covid in Ladakh on Sunday. With this, the total number of active COVID-19 cases in Ladakh has gone up to 230, including 219 in Leh and 11 in Kargil district.

New Zealand will adopt a new system of living with the coronavirus virus from Dec. 3, which will end tough restrictions and allow businesses to operate in its biggest city, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday. New Zealand remained largely COVID-19 free until August but has been unable to beat an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant, forcing Ardern to abandon an elimination strategy and switch to treating the virus as endemic. Its biggest city Auckland has been in lockdown for over 90 days, although some measures were eased recently.

Eric Zemmour, the hard-right French political commentator and possible presidential candidate, said on Monday that he felt fears over the COVID-19 virus had been overblown. “We have gone too far, and we have gone too far since the beginning,” Zemmour told France Info radio.

Around 18 lakh people in West Bengal have not turned up in time for the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine, owing to a number of reasons – contracting the virus after the first shot, death or migration to other states for work – according to a recent survey conducted by the health department. The figure includes beneficiaries of the first dose of both Covaxin and Covishield, the prescribed duration of the second dose of which are 28-42 days and 84-112 days, respectively, the study conducted in 23 districts and five health districts of the state showed. “Close to 18 lakh people have not appeared for the second dose. It’s a very serious matter,” a senior health department official told PTI.

India is not considering authorising booster COVID-19 doses yet as many in the country have been naturally infected and the government believes two doses of a vaccine offers sufficient protection for now, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.

As vaccine supplies have increased, some doctors and public health experts in India have urged the government to start a booster programme for the most vulnerable like many Western nations have done. But authorities will instead concentrate on having most of India’s 944 million adults complete a two-dose vaccination by January before shifting their focus to a big expansion in exports, said the sources who are involved in vaccine-policy discussions.

Schools closed across the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe on Monday and France’s president warned of a very explosive situation in the territory, after protests against COVID-19 rules and vaccinations descended into days of rioting and looting. France’s central government sent in police special forces to try to restore order to the former colony, as emergency workers said they were unable to reach neighborhoods barricaded by angry crowds.

Austria became on Monday the first country in western Europe to reimpose lockdown since vaccines were rolled out, shutting non-essential shops, bars and cafes as surging caseloads raised the prospect of a third winter in deep freeze for the continent. Germany will also need tighter restrictions to control a record-setting wave of infections, outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying, remarks that erased gains on European stock markets and sent bond yields down.

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Centre to gather information from the States on the progress made on disbursal of ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000 to the kin of COVID-19 victims and pulled up the Gujarat government for issuing notification constituting a scrutiny committee contrary to its directions. A bench of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna which sought to know from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, as to how many people have got the payment, said he should collect the data from all the States, and a grievance redressal committee should be set up before the next date of hearing on November 29.

The total number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 117 crore on Monday, the Union health ministry said. More than 63 lakh (63,98,165) vaccine doses were administered to the beneficiaries till 7 pm on Monday, it said, adding that the daily vaccination tally is likely to increase with the compilation of the final reports by late night. The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with the healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of the frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2.

The Centre on Monday suggested that states and union territories can organise workplace COVID-19 vaccination, targeting people due for their doses, and also provide badges to employees carrying messages to encourage their unvaccinated colleagues to get inoculated. Besides these, the Union health ministry, as part of its strategies to nudge those who are to be vaccinated, also advised involving vaccinated influential figures and community leaders in districts or villages to motivate people to get anti-Covid shots.